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Description edit
The stories in Precarious are about doing the right thing and regretting it. About making bets and dancing naked. They play out in rain-soaked Seattle and drought-stricken California. In the front seat of Mom's Malibu and a vacation cabin on Cape Cod. On a tiny island and in a desert... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Donna: Add a description of this character.
- Deirdre
- Smiley
- Stephanie
- Stan
- Brenda
- Sara
- Glenn Lewis
- Casey
- Randy
- Alison
- Linda
- Luke
- Curt
- Charlie
- Roxanne
- Donald
- Nicole
- Elaine
- Jody
- Tim
- Shana
- Rachel
- Therese
- Sheri
- Candace
- Paul
- Kyle
- Bill
- Kate
- Jill
- Jonathan
- Leslie
- Kara
- Joel
- Annie
- Maura
- Mike
- Jerry
- Caitlin
- Arcuri
- Nora
- Mr. Alt
- Maynard
Quotes edit
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“The desert is full of things you can't hold on to—light and heat and sand that slips through your fingers like friendships you once had.”
First Sentence edit
I remember the river and the way it looked at dawn: the glassy water and the wisps of fog.
Table of Contents edit
Story titles and opening lines . . .
SLEEPING WITH SMILEY
I remember the river and the way it looked at dawn: the glassy water and the wisps of fog. I can still smell the sea air and hear the trawlers chugging out past the jetty in the distance.
HOLD ON
The desert is full of things you can’t hold on to — light and heat and sand that slips through your fingers like friendships you once had.
PRAY FOR RAIN
It was dry that summer, as it had been for several years in California. Dry and hot.
X’s
There were so many things Charlie didn’t know before he left Linda. He never suspected, for instance, that his wife of seventeen years would do whatever she could to hurt him.
SKITTISH
This is the low point of my life so far. I’m 29, almost 30, and I’m working in a bookstore in Bakersfield.
PRECARIOUS
Elaine’s soft voice and evident shyness make people think she is somehow innocent, even at forty-six. Casey knows better.
WHAT SHE SAID
I’ll tell you what she said. She said, “If you’re really drunk, how come you don’t make a pass at me when I turn off the flashlight?”
DISENGAGED
Someone tapped Joel on the shoulder, and when he swiveled around to see who, there was Ed Cooper, his old boyhood friend, looking totally exhausted and full of pent-up energy all at once.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING
There was a little cove just below the old cedar-shake cottage we were renting on the Cape, and it was supposed to be good for clamming, so one morning during a minus tide, the four of us went down there with shovels and pails.
DON'T STOP NOW
We spread a blanket off to one side of the boat launch, under some trees. Island Lake, in Shelton, Washington, is surrounded by small private homes, and this is the only public access.
MEN ARE SUCH BOYS
Deirdre is having a drink with her old friend Candace but can’t keep her mind on the conversation.
DANCE NAKED
On a hill overlooking the bay in Santa Cruz there was a seafood place called Callihan’s with a rock’n'roll bar in the basement. Nothing really bad had ever happened there before.
JUST ADMIT IT
I met Jody at church. Kyle introduced me. “This is my brother, Bill,” he said. “Be nice to him; he’s a sinner.”
TAKEN
He feels the chill of the cement steps through the seat of his pants but doesn’t move. That’s just the way it is in the morning — pleasant, actually, because soon it will be more than warm enough.
YOUR EYES ONLY
Bits of wire, slivers of plywood, chunks of glass — all kinds of shit — tore through my eyelids and lodged in my eyes, leaving me in darkness and pain.
Awards edit
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813.6
Subjects edit
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Links to Supplemental Material edit
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